In a way, I,m glad the Lion's Tour is over as I couldnt handle the Jingoism from both the Paper and Broadcast media here. There seemed to a National Wet Dr**m when we had 7 Players in the 22 for the 2nd Test, various hard luck stories about players not been picked, national pressures coming thru' form each Union, etc, etc. Dont get me wrong but the Media in the UK were just as bad, especially in getting at POC

A Case in point is the reaction to the Gouging incident to Fitzy - brutal as it is, but we had two Irish Players guilty of a similar offence this last season, one fought the Charge and one pleaded guilty - regardless of the issue the reaction here was hang the Afrikanner and his Coach (post Ballet comments) out to dry. It was a different Storie with Bestie & Quinny - agree?

For the ideal of the Lions to work, the 4 Unions have to work better toghether and the preception of the Touring party must change by all 4 Union's supporters - there were too many Buthchers Aprons, Tri-colour's, Welsh Flags etc there.

Its worse than all the provincial stuff ya would see on International Day - Folks; Green is Good!

revver68 wrote:In a way, I,m glad the Lion's Tour is over as I couldnt handle the Jingoism from both the Paper and Broadcast media here. There seemed to a National Wet Dr**m when we had 7 Players in the 22 for the 2nd Test, various hard luck stories about players not been picked, national pressures coming thru' form each Union, etc, etc. Dont get me wrong but the Media in the UK were just as bad, especially in getting at POC

A Case in point is the reaction to the Gouging incident to Fitzy - brutal as it is, but we had two Irish Players guilty of a similar offence this last season, one fought the Charge and one pleaded guilty - regardless of the issue the reaction here was hang the Afrikanner and his Coach (post Ballet comments) out to dry. It was a different Storie with Bestie & Quinny - agree?

For the ideal of the Lions to work, the 4 Unions have to work better toghether and the preception of the Touring party must change by all 4 Union's supporters - there were too many Buthchers Aprons, Tri-colour's, Welsh Flags etc there.

Its worse than all the provincial stuff ya would see on International Day - Folks; Green is Good!

There will always be jingoism in sport , it is the nature of the beast, as long as it dos'nt get out of hand ( chapter 88 and England football fans etc ). I think Sky have introduced a new element and see themselves a principal cheerleaders , particularly of English players , e.g. Croft Shaw etc and the bias against others, O'Connell for example. the rest of the media seem to be following suit , a far cry from the old Auntie BBC days . I see nothing wrong with all the national flags and colours , it all adds to the uniqueness of the event. The supporters never left any doubt who they were cheering for .What is wrong with taking pride in having 7 men on the team it is unrealistic to expect otherwise .

As for the eye gouging incident, you are not comparing like with like,no one tried to defend it as the S.A officials did